Ooh...speaking of school, here's my classroom:
Originally, the desks/chairs were arranged in little pods of 6. This meant that each kid had 5 others to talk to, punch, throw stuff at, etc. It also meant that half the kids had their backs to me. Obviously, this wasn't working. I rearranged it (my coteachers were pleasantly surprised and it got me a ton of classroom cred) into the U shape you see here. This means I can see every student, they all have to face me, and they each have only two others to talk with, punch, etc. It's also sweet, because I can stand/walk up and down in the middle and be no farther than a few feet from every single student.
At lunch, my officemates and I went out to eat at a quaint little neighbourhood restaurant. They ordered me a bunch of veggie stuff which was really nice. When you go out to eat in Korea they give you a TON of side dishes, so there is a lot of variety with each meal...this is probably only half of what we had at the table:
My coteacher wants us to pitch in a bit of money every month or week or whatever, so that we can all go out for lunches every now and again...I think it's a great idea :)
After school, my coteacher and I headed into Samgye to get me a cellphone. However...every single store we went to, I have been to a few days ago and this time they told us totally different things than they told me. As it sits, I'd have to pay between 30,000 and 70,000 won to just get set up with a pay as you go phone. And THEN I'd have to pay 12,000 a month to have the service and then I'd have to buy credits I can use to text/call after that. I'd go with the 30,000 buy-in place, but I'd also have to buy a phone, and they usually want 40,000-50,000 for a crappy used phone. They were all over the place on smartphone plans too. At one point they offered me a smartphone plan without internet...umm...right.
After that, I went home, had dinner and felt the itch to go walking. So, I grabbed my cellphone (MP3 player haha) and my headphones and headed out. I walked out into the cool night listening to Big Moe (Dirty South rapper), it was pretty funny.
Okay...here's the story you're all waiting for. On my walk to Samgye I was crossing the street, green walk sign for me, red for the cars on my right. In Korea they have this odd habit that at night they turn their lights off, so they don't blind oncoming traffic. This is of course ridiculous, since they drive like absolute madmen, so I'm not sure why they feel the need to be considerate that one specific time. Also, they have their lights on anyways when they're driving, so it's kind of pointless.
Anyway, the SUV that hit me had his lights off at the intersection...to make matters even more mind-boggling; this was at a T-intersection, meaning there was no oncoming traffic to blind in the first place. So he has his lights off and it's a red light for him, but he decides to go for it anyways and tried to make a left turn (on the red onto a 6-lane road...pretty common stuff around here). The problem is that I was in the way. This happened right as I was in front of the middle of the vehicle (no way for me to avoid it...I remember checking out the emblem on the grille to see what kind of car it was 'cuz I'm a car geek a moment before he hit me).
I felt my right wrist get pinched between his hood and my body and a bit of a burning sensation as my wrist was sliding up the hood and he pushed me sideways about a foot before he realized what was going on. This was the first time I've ever lost my cool in Korea. He stopped and I stepped out from in front of him and told him a few things he wouldn't be able to repeat (hint: They have no "F" sound in Korean). Since I wasn't really hurt and he appeared to be scared (he had tinted windows, so I couldn't see him/her, but he was still sitting there a second or two after the light turned green) I decided to just keep walking after getting the initial stress off my chest.
I walked into the nearby Lotte Mart, where I met a bunch of foreigners, some of whom I've met before, others for the first time. I was there for maybe half an hour talking to one after another as they kept just randomly dropping by...it was pretty cool, definitely some great people! One of them was Maggie, whom I've met a few times before...she lives/teaches here, and her boyfriend (whose name I keep forgetting...I feel really bad about that, he's a really nice guy). Anyhoo...just when I thought commuting from Grande Prairie to Kamloops to see the ex was bad...this guy works on the oil rigs off the Gulf Coast in the States...and commutes to see her in Korea...3 weeks on a rig, 3 weeks in Korea. Mad props to the guy, that's some serious dedication. Also, I bumped into Shane (the only non-English teacher I know, he's an engineer of some sort) for the second time in three days. He's also a car geek and generally an upbeat guy.
Anyway...after all that I went for the rest of my walk (step out of the Lotte Mart, look around at all the hustle and bustle, the neon lights, etc, put my headphones on and it's Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life"...awesome), stopped at a little community park and did some bench presses then walked home, found another little community park and did some sit-ups...and decided to whip my ass into shape. I'm already down about 10 lbs compared to a month ago, but I want to lose some more and generally be in good shape...so I'll start running and taking full advantage of all the free workout places.
Eek...I just realized I have first block...gotta teach!
See you all later :) (I'll have more pics next time, I promise!)
T
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